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I’m getting caught up on the backlog in baby steps. I finished a sample pouch of this tea late last week. It took me longer than expected to find a listing for this tea on Steepster because it seems that What-Cha started sourcing their Tieguanyin from a different producer within the past year. The version of this tea that I am reviewing is a 2016 autumn harvest from Gande Village and this listing was clearly for the Gande Village Tieguanyin. The Tieguanyin What-Cha currently lists is an autumn 2017 harvest from Changkeng. Anyway, I tend to greatly enjoy Gande Village Tieguanyin. This one was certainly no exception.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 10 seconds. What-Cha recommended a water temperature of 185 F for this tea, but that seemed a little low to me. I’m used to using anywhere from 194-208 F for jade Anxi Tieguanyin, so I decided to up the water temperature to 194 F. The initial infusion was chased by 13 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 12 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted pleasant aromas of cream, butter, sweetgrass, lilac, and violet. After the rinse, I found emerging aromas of custard and vanilla. The first proper infusion brought out a hint of saffron. In the mouth, the liquor offered mild notes of sweetgrass, cream, butter, violet, and oddly enough, hints of green apple, pear, and some sort of citrus. Subsequent infusions brought out the custard, saffron, vanilla, and lilac to differing extents in the mouth. The green apple and pear notes grew stronger. The generic citrus notes started to more closely resemble tangerine. New notes of mango, minerals, coriander, and parsley also appeared. The later infusions emphasized butter, mineral, cream, and sweetgrass notes balanced by lingering hints of green apple, pear, and tangerine.

This was not the most complex or challenging Tieguanyin I have run across, but it was consistently good from start to finish. Sometimes just dealing with a nice, respectable example of a particular tea is better than anything, and for me, that was the case here. Fans of jade Tieguanyin probably will not find anything terribly interesting or unique about this tea, but it may just be the sort of tea they would choose to turn to when they want to drink something good and solid. I’m a big fan of jade Tieguanyin and that is the role this tea ended up playing for me. All in all, I think it can do the same for others.

This will probably be my final review of 2017. I doubt I will get the opportunity to post anything else tonight. The third of the Oaks Estate black teas I tried this year, I found this to be the most enjoyable of the three.

I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped about 3 grams of loose leaf material in approximately 8 ounces of 194 F water for 5 minutes. I did not attempt any additional infusions.

Prior to infusion, I found aromas of toast, wood, and malt. After infusion, I began to note scents of dandelion and amaryllis, as well as emerging aromas of grass, malt, herbs, and wood. On the palate, the liquor started off with fairly robust notes of hay, grass, wood, herbs, and dandelion, but soon notes of amaryllis, brown toast, cream, malt, golden raisin, fig, roasted almond, and blackberry arrived to provide some depth and balance. The finish was somewhat sweet and relatively smooth, providing lingering fruit, toast, and malt notes balanced by some mild astringency and hints of tannic character.

While the folks at Teabox seemed to perceive this as a consistently sweet tea, my preparation yielded a much more robust liquor with pronounced vegetal, herbal notes on the entry and much smoother, more complex notes on the back end. Though I was not a huge fan of the autumn flush Oaks black tea I tried a couple months back, I greatly enjoyed this second flush tea and would be willing to recommend it to fans of Darjeeling black teas.

Steepster really does not seem to want me to post this note. As I was typing the next to last paragraph of a review for this tea, it deleted my note as I was typing. It was literally there and then gone. Let’s try this again. I finished up a 50 gram pouch of this tea a little over a week ago, but opted to prioritize a few other reviews and didn’t get around to seriously thinking about posting a review for this tea until this evening. I found this to be a very good Yunnan black tea, but I seem to be something of an outlier in that respect because this does not seem to have been one of the more popular 2016 Yunnan Sourcing black teas.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was chased by 14 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of cedar, pine, malt, molasses, and caramel. After the rinse, I found emerging scents of honey and roasted nuts. The first proper infusion brought out a stronger roasted nut scent. On the palate, the liquor offered notes of malt, caramel, and honey balanced by a touch of molasses and impressions of bitter roasted nuts (almost like black walnut and hickory). Subsequent infusions brought out notes of butter, cream, vanilla, cocoa, tobacco, pine, and roasted peanut, while the cedar finally started to show itself on the palate. Hints of smoke, marshmallow, minerals, ginger, toast, and orange zest also emerged fairly late in the session. The later infusions emphasized mineral, roasted nut, and malt notes balanced by hints of caramel, orange zest, ginger, and toast.

I’m not sure why, but I was not expecting much complexity out of this tea. Instead, I got a ton of it. Though this may not be one of Yunnan Sourcing’s more popular Yunnan black teas here on Steepster, I found this one to be extremely enjoyable. Your mileage may vary.

I’m still making my way through some of the Toba Wangi teas I purchased this year. This was my most recent sipdown and it ended up being one of the more intriguing and enjoyable oolongs I have tried this month. The tea, itself, was quite reminiscent of a high-quality dancong oolong, though I imagine that open-minded, adventurous oolong drinkers would enjoy it as much as dancong enthusiasts.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 203 F water for 8 seconds. This infusion was chased by 12 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, I picked up aromas of roasted grain, orchid, hay, and stone fruit from the dry tea leaves. After the rinse, I detected a stronger orchid scent and emerging honey, nectarine, and plum aromas. The first infusion further emphasized floral and fruity aromas, though I did not note anything new on the nose. On the palate, I found a prominent orchid note which gave way to subtler impressions of grass, hay, roasted grain, and stone fruits. Subsequent infusions continued to bring out strong orchid impressions, though I also began to note emerging violet and plumeria notes. The stone fruit impressions grew stronger and more distinctive. I found distinct plum and nectarine notes all over the place. The honey also started to show up in the mouth. Impressions of minerals, cattail shoots, pomegranate, watercress, cream, butter, malt, pear, and raisin emerged too. The later infusions emphasized butter, malt, and mineral notes, though I could still find lingering fruity, vegetal, and floral notes in the background.

This was a fun and unique oolong that brought a lot to the table. It also demonstrated admirable longevity and versatility; I made a point of later brewing it Western and it turned out great. To be quite frank, I preferred this tea to some of the dancongs I have been trying lately.

My fixation on reducing the number of samples in my possession continues. I finished the last of this tea early yesterday afternoon, and quite frankly, it was one I was glad to see go. A blend of 2017 second flush teas from a number of Nepalese tea estates, I found this blend to be more awkward and dull than anything. Teabox described it as being a tea they enjoy more for texture than for flavor notes. I could definitely see that.

I prepared this tea in the Western fashion. I steeped 3 grams of loose leaf material in approximately 8 ounces of 194 F water for 5 minutes. Teabox recommended a steep time of 4 minutes, but I don’t mind tannic character or astringency all that much, thus opting to steep for 5 minutes instead. I did not attempt any additional infusions.

Prior to infusion, the dry tea leaves produced somewhat woody, toasty, malty aromas. After infusion, I found scents of orange, wood, toast, and cream. The liquor offered brisk, rather muddled notes of roasted almond, orange, wood, toast, malt, and cream balanced by hints of butter, cashew, blackberry, roasted peanut, and lime. The finish was quite tannic and astringent, though I could detect lingering notes of citrus, cream, and roasted nuts in the background.

Not all that complex of a blend and lacking in the depth department, this ended up being the sort of unflavored black tea bend that does not excite me all that much. Fans of breakfast tea blends may get more out of it than I did, but this is one I would not return to if given the option. At this point, I should mention that I tried it with cream and that smoothed out some of its rough edges, but unfortunately, I am not the sort of person who enjoys tea with additives. Honestly, I think I’m beginning to get the impression that Teabox’s single estate teas are better and more consistent than their blends.

This tea was such a pain for me. First, it was one of those teas that I opened and then forgot about for a longer period of time than was appropriate (I noted a few small punctures at the top of the pouch, so I ended up sealing it in another pouch. That’s probably why I forgot about it). Second, I just never got to a point where I was comfortable brewing this one. I tried two different gongfu sessions, and one was pleasant, yet not exactly consistent, while the other just yielded exceedingly bland, boring tea. I then started brewing this tea Western and got much more desirable results compared to the second gongfu session. When this tea was good, I enjoyed it, but I never quite felt that I got it right.

[Note: Of the three preparations, the initial gongfu session was my favorite overall, so that is the one that will be described below.]

When it came to preparing this tea, I opted to gongfu 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 203 F water. After a quick rinse, I steeped the leaves for 10 seconds. This infusion was chased by 11 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 12 seconds, 15 seconds, 18 seconds, 22 seconds, 28 seconds, 35 seconds, 45 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes. I know this was a weird way to do things, but it was rather late and I kept messing up my timing, so I had to keep making little adjustments until I got to the longer infusions.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves offered muted aromas of flowers, ripe plums, and sweetgrass. After the rinse, I picked up stronger floral scents (orchid, but there were other flowers there too. I kept thinking of both plumeria and geranium, but I wasn’t sure about either) and hints of roasted almond. The first infusion yielded no real difference on the nose as far as I could tell. In the mouth, the liquor offered delicate notes of roasted almond underscored by plum, sweetgrass, and orchid impressions. Subsequent infusions brought out a very smooth liquor without the expected dancong soapiness/slickness. I found emerging impressions of cream, butter, wood, and marshmallow joining stronger plum, sweetgrass, and orchid notes. There was definitely some geranium in there, and in places, I could find underlying impressions of minerals, rock sugar, cherry, malt, and toast. The later infusions were quick to wash out, offering very fleeting notes of minerals, cream, butter, and marshmallow with some distant, lingering hints of orchid, stone fruits, and sweetgrass.

I know most of the other reviewers rather liked this one, and while I did as well, I found it to be an odd tea. It was not exactly unpleasant, just rather different and difficult in my opinion. I know I should have gotten to it sooner after opening its pouch and then transferring it to a different storage vessel, but I still found a lot in this tea that held my interest. This intrigued me enough to want to give a fresher, more recent harvest a try.

I devoted most of last week to the continued cleaning out of the fabled sample pile. I get the distinct impression that I will be doing more of the same this week. This is one of my more recent sample sipdowns (yesterday) and I wanted to go ahead and get a review up on Steepster before I forgot about it. Overall, I found this to be a very nice jasmine green tea.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of dragon pearls in 4 ounces of 176 F water for 10 seconds. This infusion was chased by 13 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 12 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, I found extremely pleasant aromas of jasmine, ripe melon, and grass. After the rinse, I noted stronger jasmine, melon, and grass aromas. The first infusion then brought out hints of vanilla and squash. The liquor initially offered delicate jasmine notes on the entry that gave way to hints of grass, honeydew, nectar, and vanilla. Subsequent infusions brought out slightly stronger notes of jasmine, grass, honeydew, nectar, and vanilla. I also caught new notes of cream, fresh zucchini, straw, sugarcane, minerals, and squash blossom, as well as fleeting, subtle impressions of apricot and white peach in places. The later infusions offered pronounced mineral notes underscored by grass, zucchini, and hints of honeydew and jasmine.

This was one of the most pleasant, consistent jasmine green teas I have tried to this point. It offered a wonderful texture in the mouth and displayed considerably longevity. I do wish, however, that it had been a little stronger and thicker. All nitpicking aside, this was a still a very good tea. I would have no issue with recommending it to fans of floral teas.

I’m continuing to make progress on my mission to become more familiar with dancong oolongs. One thing I have discovered so far is that I tend to favor some of the more common, familiar dancongs, and at this point in time, Da Wu Ye might be my favorite. I was not certain how I would respond to this one considering I had previously tried only one of the other Huang Rui Guang dancong oolongs offered by Verdant Tea (the Ya Shi) and thought it was only pretty good, but yesterday was slow and I couldn’t find a reason to put off trying this one. Honestly, I found it to be a very good oolong. Like most of the dancong oolongs that I have tried, it faded pretty quickly, but more or less made up for it with a wonderfully complex mix of aromas and flavors.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 7 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 208 F water for 6 seconds. This infusion was chased by 11 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes. Even though I could tell there was still a little life left in the leaves, I cut my review session off where I did because it was getting late. As a side note, I find that I prefer dancong a little lighter and less astringent than many traditionalists, so I do not use quite as much loose tea per session. I have heard of people who brew in the chao zhou style using at least 9-10 grams of loose leaves per 4 fluid ounces. I find that I do not like to go over 6-7 grams unless I have a particularly delicate, subtle tea.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted pronounced floral, fruity aromas. There was definitely a prominent scent of nectarine there. After the rinse, I found aromas of orchid, orange, nectarine, and roasted almond. The first infusion introduced stronger orange and roasted almond scents. I also began to pick up on hints of lemon and osmanthus. In the mouth, the liquor immediately offered up notes of orchid, lemon, and bitter orange. I could see why Verdant mentioned neroli in their tasting note, as neroli is an essential oil produced from bitter orange blossoms. These notes gave way to subtler impressions of nectarine, peach, osmanthus, and roasted almond. Subsequent infusions introduced notes of lychee, pear, tangerine, stewed apricot, cream, brown sugar, vanilla, violet, caraway, and minerals. The roasted almond impressions were much stronger on these infusions. The later infusions mostly featured notes of minerals, roasted almond, and cream backed by lingering violet, citrus, peach, and nectarine notes. Interestingly enough, I could find some belatedly emerging vegetal notes on these infusions. They reminded me of a mix of damp hay and cattails. Verdant mentioned that this tea could be a little vegetal, even specifically mentioning an avocado note. Well, I found some vegetal notes, but avocado was certainly not one of them. Also, just thinking here, but wouldn’t avocado technically be a fruity note?

I seem to be the outlier on this tea because I liked it considerably more than the other reviewers. It’s no secret that I go crazy over intensely floral and/or fruity oolongs and this was most definitely that kind of tea. In the end, I think I can safely say that if you also happen to be a fan of such aromas and flavors, you’ll probably find plenty to like in this tea.

Prior to finishing a sample pouch of this tea, it had been nearly a year since I had consumed any genmaicha. It’s a type of tea I love, yet for whatever reason, I just don’t drink it all that often. This was actually thrown in with a What-Cha order earlier in the year as a free sample. That was rather fortuitous considering I had been toying around with the idea of ordering some Obubu teas at the time, and the arrival of this sample allowed me to try one for free. Honestly, I found this to be an okay genmaicha. It was pleasant and it was not really bad in any way, yet it also did not wow me. I was expecting more too because I have seen this tea get rave reviews in other places.

Since I do not own a kyusu, I had to use a standard teacup and mesh infuser. I used about 3-4 grams of loose genmaicha for my approximately 8 ounce cup. I should also note that I tried a number of brewing methods with this tea. The one that worked best for me was a series of three infusions in which I started with an extended brewing time, cut the time back on the second infusion, and then extended it again on the third and final infusion. Steep times went 1 minute 30 seconds to start, then 30 seconds for the middle infusion, and then 3 minutes to finish. I also used a higher water temperature than What-Cha recommended. I researched this tea a little before trying it and found that other sellers and several genmaicha brewing guides suggested starting with a water temperature around 195 F and then increasing up to 212 F from there. I thus used 195 F water for the first infusion, 205 F for the second, and 212 F for the final infusion. I also tried brewing this tea both at What-Cha’s recommended 176 F and at 190 F, but I found that I preferred the results of the other preparation. Also, I did not cover my cup as the tea was steeping. I watched a video from Obubu on Youtube in which they not only did not cover the tea as it steeped, but they also recommended that the tea be allowed to steep uncovered. They were of course preparing this tea in the traditional manner and were starting with a significantly shorter initial infusion, but they insisted this method allowed one to better gauge the progress of the tea as it steeped. It probably was not necessary for me to do this, but I did it anyway. Did I get this one right? I probably did not, but hey, at least you know what kind of brewing methods I was using.

Prior to infusion, I noted that the dry blend produced mildly toasty, grassy aromas. After infusion, I noticed a strong scent of toasted rice balanced by hints of grass, spinach, and seaweed. In the mouth I found a nice toasted rice note up front, though I quickly found underlying impressions of hay, grass, seaweed, and something of a sweetness. It reminded me a little of caramel, though I also thought there was something rather floral and nectar-like about it. The second infusion again emphasized toasted rice on the nose. In the mouth, I found more balanced flavors of toasted rice, hay, grass, seaweed, and spinach. The sweetness was still there and I began to note impressions of minerals and wood too. The final infusion offered a milder toasted rice presence on the nose offset by a more prominent vegetal character. A subtle minerality was present as well. I found a somewhat heavier mineral presence in the mouth. There were fleeting toasted rice, grass, hay, spinach, wood, and seaweed impressions beneath it. I could also pick up on a faint hint of sweetness.

This was a very mild, mellow, subtle genmaicha no matter how I prepared it. I should note too that I was expecting a more balanced blend and did not quite get that. What I mean is that I was expecting a very even split between the toasted rice and the Yanagi bancha, but the toasted rice seemed to be consistently more prominent on the nose and in the mouth. Personally, I like my genmaichas a little heavier, a little more balanced, and a little more astringent, but this was not bad. It most certainly was not my thing, but again, it wasn’t bad.

This was my first sipdown of the week. At some point over the course of the year, I acquired a pouch of this tea. I’m not certain whether it was from 2016 or 2017, though if I had to guess, I would say the former. I did not quite know what to expect when I cracked this one open. I had seen multiple reviews online, and despite the general reception being mostly positive, it got more mixed reviews overall than I would normally expect from a Whispering Pines offering. Personally, I found this to be an excellent hong cha.

Before I provide my usual rundown of my brewing method, allow me to state that I deviated a little from Whispering Pines’ brewing instructions. The brewing instructions on the pouch recommended a water temperature of 212 F, but that seemed a little high to me. I am used to using temperatures between 194-205 F for many tippy Yunnan black teas, and once I saw the profusion of golden tips, I knew I would not be using the recommended water temperature. I’ve had a lot of luck lately with using 194 F water for Yunnan black teas, so that is what I went with here. The rinse was only a couple seconds. I more or less did it water on, water off. I stuck with my usual 6 grams of loose tea in a 4 ounce gaiwan. Infusions ran as follows: 5 seconds, 7 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and 7 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea emitted pronounced aromas of baked bread, sweet potato, and molasses. After the rinse, I found new aromas of vanilla, malt, and brown sugar. The first proper infusion brought out a touch of woodiness on the nose. On the palate, I found light notes of baked bread, malt, brown sugar, sweet potato, and molasses. Subsequent infusions brought out impressions of cream, cocoa, clove, anise, wood, caramel, fennel, orange, honey, minerals, and eucalyptus. The later infusions offered lingering impressions of minerals, brown sugar, sweet potato, malt, and wood chased by gentle, cooling herbal notes on the finish.

In my opinion, this was yet another really nice Yunnan black tea from Whispering Pines Tea Company. I particularly liked the little herbal notes it offered and was extremely impressed by both its smooth body and respectable staying power. Overall, I would have no issue recommending this tea to fans of traditional Yunnan black teas.